big giant circles

Somebody should go ahead and put together a chart ranking all the totals just for lolz. Of course none of us paid that actual amount, but I guess it is kinda fun to see who among us is the most impulsive and has the least resistance to Steam Sales http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/biggiantcircles total - $1449.86 USD

Wow, thanks man, you rock!

Tony that rocks dude! You're a talented guy and deserve it!

Heck yes! There will be some Mazedude for sure on the next BGC album! Also, if any of you have been holding out for physical CDs, they're now available via bandcamp! http://music.biggiantcircles.com Go get 'em!

I'll just leave this here:

Absolutely. I'm doing my homework on it right now actually, figuring out who paid what and I'll send out an email sometime this week.

Did I chime in on this thread yet? I don't think I did, and shame on me for not doing so until now. Very solid stuff! Go buy this album, it's worth whatever you pay! (Unless you just DL it for free, and then it's certainly worth more!)

Hope it was a happy birthday!

Right, I was just saying. They ought to make an app that tracks when games were purchased. They'd probably see a huge spike after Thanksgiving, during Christmas/New Years, and around the time they usually do their summer sale.

Haha, the Steam Games Calculator is crazy off. I doubt there's a person on the planet who's payed more than 50% of whatever their list total says (if that much).

Just a bump to let everyone know that the album is now out on CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon MP3, and pretty much most other digital distribution sites/services (and if it's not now, give it a couple days and it should be.) Of course, bandcamp is the cheapest and also offers the pay-what-you-want tipping system, but if iTunes/Amazon/etc is more your thing you can buy it there too. Physical albums will be available shortly, my first batch should arrive tomorrow and then I can get those set up to be sold through CD Baby/Bandcamp. I've also updated http://impostornostalgia.com to now serve as a hub to all these places. Thanks again for all the listens, support, and all the kind comments I've received from all you!

Glad you guys like it. Dave thanks for yet another awesome and well-written writeup <3

More minecraft awesome -

you're good to go now.

Happy birthday P-D! Don't really know you other guys, but happy birthday to you as well. Caaaake!

Says you, anyway.

Who's bashing Madeline for winning? Did I miss something? Everyone's been polite and reasonable about expressing their congratulations (including Jill), and those who disagreed with the judges' choice have presented their reasoning politely and plainly, and have never once bashed her.

I'll continue this in a PM so as to not start a giant debate in Jill's thread.

I'm not sure you read all of my posts. But if you ever work on a multi-million dollar title like Assassin's Creed for minimum wage or less, I would personally kick you in the balls next time I saw you. (Ok, probably not, but I will be thoroughly disgusted with you as well as the people who put you up to it for that.) There's nothing wrong with doing what you love for free if it's a labor of love type project (see: not commercial). When you start providing top-notch quality work for top-tier commercial projects where other people are making sackfuls of money off it, you have to realize that you're devaluing something to everyone else that wants to (and should) make a living off those talents. And even if you don't "regularly make $1000 on musical projects" that doesn't change the fact that if you were chosen as the vocalist, you should still be paid higher than that. "Being a part of something amazing" should never compromise the value of your part in it. If that's a thing someone isn't willing to learn then they are probably going to fail in a career in music (or writing, or any other career that requires you to place enough value on your services to make a living on.) That's just how it is. Like I said, my perspective is probably not readily recognized from the amateur/hobbyist's immediate perspective. Maybe it's just something that someone can't comprehend until they've had the right experiences or been in a situation where the point suddenly becomes a little more valid to them. I dunno. Maybe to simplify, I'll use an example. There comes a point when people that I find really talented need to make a certain amount of money so that they can continue to provide me with the product of their talents. I want them to make lots of money (or at least comfortable amounts anyway) because I don't want them to just stop being able to make music just because there are too many other people doing it for cheap, so that they fall into the (increasingly large) category of people who have to put music aside because they have to get a dayjob so they don't you know, starve. The same line of thinking goes to artists, writers, programmers, electricians, carpenters, engineers, pilots, teachers, policemen, etc etc etc. I'm not sure if that makes apparent sense, but I hope it does. Pay people what they're worth so that they can keep doing it. If they're not worth it, then that will be clear enough, but for the specific topic at hand, the competition winner will easily be worth more than they offered. I'm going to try to end my thread-derailing/rant there and let people get back to what they were doing. Once again, congrats to everyone who did well in this competition. I hope life proves me wrong, and will present worthy opportunities for those of who you who placed in the finals to further your careers based on your fine performances/auditions.

Almost every successful professional in the industry, especially somebody like Hans Zimmer knows that the whole "Oh we'll give you exposure in exchange for you working for nothing (or an insultingly below-normal wage)" is a giant load of crap. That's just the way it is. Exposure by its lonesome, in a case such as this is really not worth anything at all. Harlan Ellison is a very abrasive character, and definitely strikes many people as kind of a douche, but he does make a good point concerning people being properly paid for their work. "There are so many amateurs out there who don't realize they should be paid every time they do something." If you flip the rolls around and think "Would Hans Zimmer agree to perform for $1000 for a key role in a AAA multi-million-dollar-budget video game?" I guarantee the answer is abso-friggin-lutely not. He would not ever ever ever agree to work for so low. And yet this contest is paying just that to the winner. And if anyone says "Yes, but he's Hans Zimmer, he's the best of the best, so he has the right to be paid more", you surely have to realize that once you start paying for a name by itself instead of paying for the quality of the final product, that there's some major flaw in perception going on. My point is that the winner is going to go on and sing for $1000 and some cool, but ultimately fickle exposure, whereas if Hans Zimmer were a vocalist with the same fame as he has composing, he would probably be paid $20k or more for the exact same kind of work. Anyway, I could rant for a while on the subject, and I really don't mean to derail the thread into my Zimmer/contest-gripes, but I did feel it was fair enough to point out this perspective to those who might not have considered that side of it. Congrats again to the winner, and especially to Jill for (justifiably) being the obvious public favorite. Carry on.

No idea. They brought him in because they wanted his name on their project. I agree, Jesper is MORE than capable of writing music that is just as good as anything Zimmer will write. But Zimmer's name sells apparently, so it's worth the giant budget increase I guess.

I'm 100% on board with no hate for the winner. I am however in pretty solid disgust with Zimmer and the guys in charge of this contest. And here's why. Before reading this, know that this is an opinion contrived and shared more on the professional side of the industry, and MAY NOT represent the opinions of the more amateur/hobbyist side. Simply put, while it may be exciting for some people to think "Oh, I can get on a video game AND win $1000? Best opportunity EVAR!" quite simply put, that's an insultingly low wage for any professional musician/performer, PARTICULARLY for a project that Hans Zimmer is on. Why? Well, first of all, even if Zimmer weren't on board, Assassin's creed is a major, big-budget AAA game release. Which means that the budget for the music is equally large. Now we tack on Zimmer, and I guarantee that the music budget probably increased by several hundred (yes hundred) percent. Considering they're looking for a vocalist to be prominently featured on the main theme song for a game (and possibly more), $1000 is a joke. I guarantee that Zimmer is going to be collecting upwards of $2000 per MINUTE of whatever music he writes, and it's my guess that on top of that he probably has a simply outrageous creative fee. Every one of the professionals who I highly respect and whose insight and experience I value greatly that I have spoken to on this subject have all so far been unanimous in their disdain of the terms for this contest. It's a publicity stunt, and it's very unprofessionally contrived. Okay. So now that I've ranted about that, let me follow up by saying that in NO WAY does this reflect any of my feelings for the contestants or the winner. I'm happy for anyone and everyone who felt compelled to submit an entry, and I congratulate those who made it to the finals wholeheartedly. And I'm not downplaying the fact that the winner has a neat opportunity and this will make a nice little addition to her resume/portfolio, and that $1000 is better than nothing sure. But again, try to understand that my gripe is that the services rendered should be worth much much more than that which is being offered. I just felt compelled to say why I have no problem expressing that while this seems like a neat idea, it's ultimately showing how some people basically has the industry by the balls and are getting rich off of other people's heavily undervalued merits. Also, I was rooting for Jill because out of the 15 or so entries I heard, I legitimately thought hers sounded the best overall (pitch, control, emotion), but congrats to Madeline as well.

So lately, the endermen don't attack me at all unless I attack them. I can walk right up to them and stare and stare and they just walk around and go DERP. I am dissapoint.